Viktor Ullmann's "The Broken Jug"

Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

The music in Viktor Ullmann's "The Broken Jug" is perky, but the back story is tragic: Ullmann finished the opera in 1942, just before the Nazis sent him to a concentration camp. Here, Steven Humes (Walter), left, plays opposite Elizabeth Bishop (Frau Marthe Rull).

The music in Viktor Ullmann's "The Broken Jug" is perky, but the back story is tragic: Ullmann finished the opera in 1942, just before the Nazis sent him to a concentration camp. Here, Steven Humes (Walter), left, plays opposite Elizabeth Bishop (Frau Marthe Rull). (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

The music in Viktor Ullmann's "The Broken Jug" is perky, but the back story is tragic: Ullmann finished the opera in 1942, just before the Nazis sent him to a concentration camp. Here, Steven Humes (Walter), left, plays opposite Elizabeth Bishop (Frau Marthe Rull).